From her days in primary school, Iyabo Yomi had dreamt big. Born to devout Muslim parents, there was no other route to greatness as far as she was concerned except western education. That was the path she trod until she finished her secondary school education at Abeokuta Girls Grammar School. But her master-plan on how to make it in life changed at 18 as she suddenly found a short-cut to success in drug trafficking. She really made a lot of money from the business but lost all to nemesis. Iyabo Yomi just clocked 60 years. On her birthday quietly celebrated in Lagos, she looked back into her past life and wished she could have a fresh opportunity to take another shot. She said she is full of regrets today for the wasted years and wished the whole world could learn from her mistake. AGATHA EMEADI encountered her and reports.
It was Iyabo Yomi’s quiet 60th birthday celebration in her mother’s house in Lagos and her pastors were on hand to bless her new year. This report­er also visited to wish her a hap­py birthday and perhaps ask her a few questions about her journey in life with a view to taking something home. But when she opened up, our reporter could not resist taking her voice down, particularly when she said she was not averse to sharing her ‘dirty’ past with the world for them to learn from it.
How I was introduced into drug business
Iyabo Yomi, a reporter’s delight, narrated that immediately after her secondary school education, she made up her mind to make it in life. “So, in search of green pastures like every other young fellow, I decid­ed to travel out of Nigeria not only to get good job but also to proceed with my education.
“Like I said, it was after my sec­ondary school from Abeokuta Girls Grammar school; I was going to London for my HSC ‘A’ levels when my late aunt gave me a parcel to deliver in London. I could not have opened it. And I could not have sus­pected that it was containing any­thing dangerous or unlawful. But the parcel, unfortunately happened to contain cannabis. I got to know the content after I got to London.
“Specifically, when I got to the entry point in London, I was asked to submit all that I came with. Of course, I innocently declared all that I had with me including the parcel of cannabis which content I did not know, in he first place.
“When it was so discovered, I was arrested, tried and given a sus­pended death sentence at Holloway Prisons in London.
“But because it was evident I was naïve and young, I was deport­ed to Nigeria immediately,” she re­counted.
Iyabo said her deportation to Nigeria on the account of carrying illicit drugs into London marked a tragic turning point in her life. She explained that it was so be­cause while she was at Holloway Prisons in London, she had mixed with hardened criminals who com­mitted similar offences and had ex­changed experiences.
Hear her: “It was while I was at Holloway before my deportation that my eyes were ‘opened’. I was made to understand in the pris­on that there was so much mon­ey in it and that if I had succeed­ed, I would have been swimming in money. I heard stories of where the drugs could be sold and how it is sold. The inmates also recounted how big they had become and dif­ferent ways of beating security to it. So, all these changed my focus and plan to make it in life through mere western education.
“When I came back to Nigeria, I didnt discuss with people what my new agenda was except to ask ques­tions on how and where to get can­nabis in large quantities. Indeed, I fished out a big cannabis market at Idi-Araba then.
“The drug which my aunt­ie gave me and which took me to Holloway Prison weighed 3.7 kilo­grammes. But in the prison, I met people with tonnes of cannabis. My intention therefore was to carry it in large quantities leveraging on the tutorials already received to beat the security men to it in order to make quick money.
“So, instead of coming out of the prison with fear, I became hard­ened. In fact, I coined a slang for myself: ‘where I fall, I must rise,’” she said.
Iyabo said that was how the business began, travelling in and out of London with cannabis.
She continued: “Now, I sent my­self to London with cannabis for the second time. N1,000.00 worth of cannabis then gives you five kil­ogrammes. About 17kg worth of cannabis gives you a lot of money in London.
“In London then, I had teachers and mentors who further perfect­ed me on the job and I also knew where to get my stuff, where to sell and how much to charge for the substance brought in.”
The ex-courier who has now be­come a born-again Christian said the business was going on well that she gathered, within a short while, a whole lot of clientele who were at her beck and call.
“I must say that I made six suc­cessful trips when I started the busi­ness and a lot of money too. Each time I finished my transaction, I would buy clothings for sale. That was how I used to disguise myself,” she said.
She also recalled how it was easy to go to London then because visa was issued at the entry point. She said it was easy then to pick up a passport, use it once, discard it and pick another one.
“However, the long arm of the law caught up with me again dur­ing my seventh trip as I was arrest­ed for the second time in London. I was actually not living in London but was just visiting and returning.
“As at the time of my arrest, I was pregnant. But as usual, I was tried and given a suspended death sentence for 18 months for the sec­ond time,” she explained.
She said that though she knew the implication of being caught with the illicit drugs, the money she was making from the business would not allow her to stop it.
She was delivered of her baby girl in prison
“I was arrested for the third time in London for cannabis and was handed 3 years imprisonment which ran concurrently. That was in 1983. I was sent to Holloway Fe­male Prison to serve out my terms with my pregnancy. But while I was there, I was delivered of my child.”
According to Iyabo, pregnancy and child birth do not disturb the rule of law in advanced democracy.
“The moment you commit the offence and are apprehended by the authorities, the law must take its full course,” she said.
My escapade in UK prisons
Iyabo, now a born-again Chris­tian said she thanked God that she did not die while jumping from one prison to another. She explained that she took some daring steps which could claim her life had any of them boomeranged.
Hear her: “When I got to Style Prison, I arranged with a girl I met there to come and take my baby from me even though it is allowed in that jurisdiction. My plan was to escape but the girl was not in the know.
“She used to come to the prison with my baby and visit me. Howev­er, when I perfected my plan to ab­scond from the prison, I told her not to visit me anymore and also told her my reasons.
“On that fateful Sunday, I had already planned it. I looked around and made sure nobody saw me. I jumped the fence and ran to some of my friends who had been released earlier.
“I, however, got information that prison officials were looking for me in London. So, instead of going back to London to carry my baby, I told one of the girls to keep her.
“I went to the post office with someone’s birth certificate and got a visiting visa which enabled me to travel to Holland instead of Nigeria.
“When I got to Holland, I went to the Nigerian Embassy and told them that I lost my travel docu­ments. Of course, they prepared me other papers which enabled me to travel to Nigeria. That was how I got to Nigeria in 1983, she narrated.
Iyabo graduated from cannabis to heroin
But before she plotted her way back to Nigeria, her old colleagues in crime had, again, introduced her to heroin, a more lucrative hard drug which they said was easier to courier.
She was however to change lo­cation of transaction. Instead of plying Nigeria-Lodon route, she changed to Nigeria-US route.
“I dealt with the powder (her­oin) which had numerous advan­tages. It was easier to carry, it was quick and express business. I had a five-year multiple visas and en­tered America 12 times every year,” she said.
After successfully trafficking in the dangerous substance again sev­erally, she said she ran into the se­curity net and got caught.
“For once, I was suspected and stopped at JFK airport in America. They put me in a car and took me to a hospital for X-Ray and found nothing on me.
But how did I beat them to it? When they put me in their car, I dropped my hand bag which con­tained my stuff in their car and came down empty handed. After all the brouhaha, they found nothing on me and in fact apologized to me.
“When I got back into their car, I picked my bag where the drug was hidden and continued my journey. I succeeded in deceiving them be­cause I wore a heavy African big and roundish cloth known as bou-bou with a wrapper on it. It was smartly done in their presence.
“My trick worked for a while but one day, it failed me. When I was arrested in America, I was kept at MCC New York remand home. As soon as the law took its full course and I was handed my jail term of years, I was moved to Alderson Prisons in Virginia that same day.
“It was from the Virginia Prison that I escaped from with my friend (a Columbian girl) whom I met in MCC New York. Both of us came from New York to Alderson Pris­ons in Virginia. Iyabo’s acquaint­ance had a multiple case; she was a dealer who lived in America
“We had help from an outsid­er. In front of the prison was water-logged and I cannot swim; again one cannot pass through the gate; but at the back of the prison, there is a hill fenced out with barbed wire. That barbed wire serves as a pro­tector.
“We planned with the Columbi­an girl’s husband to stand at the hill and look at the prison authorities and signal us. We also agreed that if we saw him, we would smuggle our­selves out and meet him at the hill.
“So, the guy actually came as agreed, stood there, we saw him and followed his signal, went down and cut the barbed wire and ran to the hill where he assisted us out.
“As my drug business boomed, I thought I was a giant. I thought there was no one like me. The busi­ness was the reason why I was una­ble to contain any man. I had chil­dren because I wanted to have. I had my life, my freedom, power and my excess money to spend,” she said.
Iyabo who spoke on her various escapades, told The AUTHORITY on Saturday that apart from her or­deal in both London and the Unit­ed States, she also had a nasty expe­rience in Ghana.
According to her, of all the off­shore prisons she was detained in her life, it was Ghana that really broke her down.
Her words: “It was in Ghana prison that I had a genuine turning point in my life. It was in that pris­on that I lost all the material wealth that drug gave me in life. It was also in the prison that I embraced Christ.
“Before my arrest in Ghana, I was very rich. I could count $500,000.00, £100,000.00 in my hands. I had mon­ey, freedom and spend lavishly un­til the long arm of the law caught up with me in Ghana.
“I was arrested in Ghana in the year 2000. In 1999, I was based in Ghana and I travelled out of Ghana to Pakistan through Dubai and went to a city called Peshawar to procure drugs. Instead of coming out through Karashe, I came out through Pesha­war, another state in Pakistan enroute Dubai on Ethiopian airline and my drugs was fully stuffed on me.
“I crossed Peshawar airport and there was no problem. I concealed some of the drugs in my shoes and others used as sanitary towel in my private area. When we transited, as I got to the narcotic section because one entrance was introduced, there were many hands and the airline op­eratives requested to talk to the pas­sengers because that route is a dan­ger zone for drugs-related offences.
“Again, most passengers could get drugs easily from there. It was during the Muslim fasting period, I pretended as if I was having my monthly period so searching was mild around that area.
“My sluggish looks assisted me. That was how I played smart to beat security operatives and had a nar­row escape to Ghana. On getting to Ghana and being aware that passen­gers from Middle East are thoroughly searched, a lady and I were detained.
“That other lady swallowed hers. I applied all my tricks as a trained drug peddler but unfortunately, those tricks failed me. When they took us to the hospital, all the scan­ners that conducted the X-Ray could not detect anything on me because when they asked me to breathe in, I would hold my breath and if they asked me to breathe out, I would still hold the breath, with that, the X-Ray was disorganized and could not de­tect anything on me.
“In fact, they knew something was with me but could not detect it. The Ghanaian authorities named my partner ‘the master’ and after due process, we were sent to Jet Fort Pris­on, Accra, Ghana; a remand home. It was from there we started going to court.
“ I eventually got a bail from the magistrate but because I was a for­eigner, they insisted I must not go but complete my trial. Judgment came up on 15th September, 2000 and I was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment which would run concurrently with­out bail.
“That same day, we were taken to Nsawam Female Prisons in Ku­masi, Ghana. That was how I start­ed my 10-year sojourn in the Ghana­ian prison. The way I lived my life; I found it difficult to stay in Ghanaian prison. It was horrible for me. In fact, even with my past experience in Pris­on, I didn’t know I would have spent 10 years in Ghana.
“While in prison, I lost all the wealth I made through drug traf­ficking. However, one day while in prison, my name was announced that someone was looking for me. I could not imagine who that could be.
“When I came out, it was my last daughter who came to look for me. I could not believe it. As I screamed and asked her questions together, she said she saw one of the letters I wrote my mother and copied the address from there.
“That was the day I knew God was working out something in my life, and it brought so much joy to my life because I had a fibroid sur­gery that almost took my life while in prison.
“I almost died of boredom and loneliness, thinking. My son also came and vowed not to sleep unless they saw me. Those were the mo­ments of strength for me.
“The experience in Ghana’s pris­on is not what I can wish my worst enemy. Prisons abroad are like homes just that you will not get out of the gate. But in Ghana, I went through hell.
“ In that small room, we were 27, practically sleeping on ourselves. If you are sleeping and want to turn, you must stand up fully erect before you could turn and take another po­sition.
“We were packed into the room like sardine. We also had a ‘chamber bucket’ in that same room where we defecated and passed out urine. The offensive odour, sight and thought of it was killing and made us fall sick anyhow.
“There were just two beds for the 27 of us; the older women pris­oners we met there slept on the bed while we ‘freshers’ jam-packed on the floor,” she recounted, adding that the Jet Fort prison was a slavery centre before it was converted into a re­mand home.
She lamented on the smokes that oozed out from the kitchen whenev­er cooking was going on.
“At the time, I used to imag­ine the air-conditioner in my house when I was on the fast lane and the smoke pouring in my eyes and all over my body because I was in pris­on.
“It was hell. Food meant for pris­oners were sold by inmates to in­mates. Whenever ‘Banga’ soups are made, the oil on top would be de­tached by older inmates and sold to other inmates that have money.
At a point, all the money I took to prison were gone; there were no vis­its from anyone I knew in the whole world. My life was gradually coming to an end. It was not funny at all.
“I had a lawyer who advised me to bribe and pay. Unfortunately, the big money was paid into the wrong hand. All my efforts to run away from Ghanaian prison as I used to, proved abortive because I used to go out of the gate but something I did not know was holding me back.
“It was strange to me because I escaped from the prisons of world powers but that of Ghana was wa­ter tight.
She narrated that when she fi­nally came back home to Nigeria af­ter serving out her 10-year jail term, she felt terribly bad because she had lost everything that drug gave her. All my properties, all machines for an in­dustry went with the winds. I went through hell.
“Today, it is my 60th birthday, I do not have money but I am grateful to God who has kept me alive to see my children. I am more grateful be­cause I now have Christ in my life. Many people died doing the illicit trade, but I am still alive. My advice to all is that there is no gain in drug trafficking or drug dependence. If at all there is anything, it is ruins. Drugs ruin,” she concluded.

Source: http://www.authorityngr.com/2016/02/I-made-lots-of-monies-in-foreign-currencies-through-drugs-biz-but-lost-all-to-nemesis--Mrs-Yomi/

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